R.L. Stine on Writing Horror for Grown-Ups

I had no pent-up desire to write this kind of thing. But I’m on Twitter all day and kept getting asked to write an adult book. I’ve been writing Goosebumps for 20 years. A lot of my followers were kids when it first came out and kept saying, “Write something for us!” I thought, well, I can’t really ignore my original audience.

It’s hard for children’s authors to be accepted when they try to write adult books. J.K. Rowling is the exception because people are so eager to read anything by her, but it took Judy Blume three or four tries before she had a success. I found it a real challenge. It’s like a runner who’s used to doing sprints and then decides to do a marathon. When I write for kids it has to be kind of believable, but they also have to know it’s a fantasy. But when you write horror for adults, every detail has to be real. I actually had to do research on things like vegetation on the Outer Banks.